St. Joseph the Worker by Fr. Gerard Jonas

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Visitors are welcome at Mepkin Abbey, which is privately owned and is home for Trappist monks. Living according to the Rule of St. Benedict, the monks offer hospitality to strangers. At Mepkin, that means that the abbey’s gardens are open daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Reception Center/Gift Shop is open Tuesday – Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (closed on Mondays); guided tours to the Abbey Church are offered Tuesday through Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. (See details below) To maintain their lives of prayer, silence, privacy and solitude, the monks have a few important requests of all visitors:

• Upon arrival, please check in at the Reception Center/Gift Shop.

• Read and abide by all signs.

• Only two roads are open to the public: the main road which runs from the entrance to the public gardens, and the road which leads to the Reception Center & Store. Please stay on these two roads.

• Dogs must be on leashes at all times. (Please pick up after your dog.)

• Access to the Abbey church is by guided tour only. This access is limited because the church is in the monastic enclosure, the heart of the monastery.

• No professional photography allowed.

Tours

Guided tours to the Abbey Church are 11:30 AM and 3:00 PM Tuesdays to Saturdays. Tours are $5 per person (children and students free) which includes a guidebook of either the Gardens or the Monastery. (Note: The guided church tours include a walk from the Reception Center to the Abbey Church, a distance of about a quarter of a mile.) Reservations required for groups of 10 or more.

Visitors may enjoy the public gardens at their leisure.

Reception Center/Gift Shop

Once a month, on a Friday, the monks have a day of total silence and solitude. They call these the “Desert Days” and no tours of the monastery are given on these days. However, the Reception Center/Gift Shop and the gardens are open.

Upcoming Desert Days:

January 11
February 8
March 15
April 12
May 3
June 7
July 5
August 2
September 6
October 4
November 8
December 20

Mepkin Affiliate Program

It’s Mayday. For us Catholics, today, we commemorate St. Joseph, the worker. This commemoration was established by Pope Pius XII in 1955, as a reminder to us that human labor brings dignity to individuals and that work is for the good of everyone, according to the example of St. Joseph, the Foster Father of Jesus Christ.

Even before I was ordained a priest in 1991, I was tasked to help put up our archdiocesan publishing house in Batangas in the Philippines. We wanted it named after St. Joseph, our diocesan patron. But the Securities and Exchange Commission would not register it as such since the name was already taken. It was then that we thought of “Pepe.”

How or why has Pepe become the nickname for Joseph or Jose or Giuseppe? Saint Joseph is the foster father or the commonly accepted father of Jesus Christ, in Latin, pater putativus . In Spanish, the letter “P” is pronounced “peh” giving rise to the nickname Pepe for Jose. Thus, in the Archdiocese of Lipa, we now have the Pater Putativus Publishing House.

Our Gospel reading today affirms Pepe as the nickname for Joseph. Jesus was referred to as the “carpenter’s son.” Though not his biological father, Joseph gave Jesus Christ his social identity.

As a carpenter, Joseph labored to provide for Mary and Jesus, his family at Nazareth. He was not just an ordinary carpenter but regarded more as an artisan, giving attention not just to utility but also creatively to the finer artistic details in his projects. He did manual tasks of everyday life, as St. Paul wrote to the Colossians, with one’s whole being at the service of the Lord. Literally, he was serving the Lord.

Jesus took to his father. After his foster father Joseph, Jesus was a master builder of community, repairer of relationships, restorer of health and life; and after God the Father, Jesus was the master builder of God’s Kingdom here on earth.

Today’s commemoration of St. Joseph the Worker brings to the fore, the dignity of human labor. The dignity of work is not just in serving the Lord. More so, it is living up to our human dignity of being created in the likeness of God who never ceases to work. Our work is our participation in the life of God, in the work of God.

According to Pope John Paul II, “Work is a good thing for one’s humanity — because through work one not only transforms nature, adapting it to his or her own needs but also achieves fulfillment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes more a human being.’”

Through the example, guidance and intercession of St. Joseph the Worker, the foster father of Jesus, may all thework of all our faculties – be they physical, intellectual, spiritual, moral – become truly only and always an expression of love, an instrument of sanctification, and an efficacious means to follow the saving will of God, the Creator and Redeemer.

Vocation Thought for the Day

“… and they dropped their nets and followed Jesus.” What have I allowed to keep me from following the Lord’s call?